Bottle capper



L. M. ROUSE.

BOTTLE CAPPER.

'APPLICATION FILED Aue.22. 191a.

Patented Mar. 14, 1922.

\ Fi I Jim UNITED STATES LOVELL M. HOUSE, OF PORTLAND, OREGON.

BOTTLE CAPPER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 14, 1922.

I Application filed August 22, 1918. Serial No. 250,935.

To a?! whom it may conceivi:

Be it known that I, LOVELL M. Roosn, a citizen of the United States of America, and residing at Portland, in the county of Multnomah, in the State of Oregon, have invented certain new and useful. Improvements in Bottle Cappers, of which the following a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing.

The obj eat of my invention is to produce a simple, cheap and eflicient device for securing a metal cap to the neck of a bottle, and for expanding a previously used cap for I'Qttl')j )ll(321tl0ll to a bottle.

My device is of that type which is adapted to be manipulated like a tool, which it is, but which will do the work required of it in every respect as well as a capping machine.

iVhat constitutes my invention will be hereinafter specified in detail and succinctly set forth in the appended claim.

In. the accompanying drawing,

Fig. I is a side elevation of my invention complete in present preferred form of embodiment.

Fig. 11 is a diametrical vertical section of the subject-matter of Fig. I showing, in elevation, a bottle neck to which my capper is applied as in the completion of the operation of securing a cap thereto.

Referring to the numerals on the drawing. 1 indicates a cylinder made of sheet metal, wh ich preferably is hollow throughout but has its upper end filled with a core 2, made of wood or other material suitable for keeping the cylinder l well expanded and in best condition to receive the impact of a hammer or other driving tool against it. To secure the core 2 within the cylinder, I prefer to employ one or more internally projecting annular ribs 3 in the cylinder that enter corresponding grooves in the core. An internal annular flange i on the cylinder serves a protective covering to the encompassed. outer edge of the core. It also affords .in its contour 5 an annular wedge, which, being made of suitable dimensions, is adapted when inserted and driven into a previously used cap to expand it SllfilCiQIlt-ly.

an open end that by reason of being pre ferably slightly flared or belled may be designated a bell-mouth 6. The bell shaped end of the cylinder is preferred only as a convenience which facilitates the manipulation of the device in applying it against an uncrimped bottle cap, and which in the bending operation upon the cap gathers together the skirt of the cap into a suitable crimp. The bell mputh is otherwise designated herein a cap crimper.

The diameter'of the cylinder 1 is determined by the size of the bottle-neck terminal 7 to which it is adapted for use. Said diameter should sufiiciently exceed that of the bottle-neck not only to admit of the introduction into the end of the cylinder of the end 7 of the bottle-neck, but also to accommodate properly a cap 8 within the cylinder and about the end of the bottle-neck as shown, for example, in Fig. '11.

To adapt the bell-mouth or crimper 6 to the performance of the function required of it, namely, of crimping a cap, it is preferably provided with a constricted zone 10; but the mere constricting of the zone, while it may serve to crimp a cap, may do so in such a manner as to endanger the integrity of the bottle-neck. A conically flared terminal to the cylinder 1 might, for example, serve to the extent of'the mere crimping of a cap about the end 7 of a bottle-neck but without other provision. would tend every time it was used to crush the bottle-neck. In order practically to eliminate that danger it is necessary to provide an obstructing element against which the end of a bottleneck may find a positive abutment and a limit to the depth of its insertion into the cylinder 1. I prefer to provide the said obstructing ele ment in the form of an internal annular rib 11. t is essential that the depth of such rib measured. from the outside or the diameter of the annulus formed by it. measured from the inside, be adequately determined, since a too shallow indentation though annular will not serve the purpose and may be as definitely unserviceable and for a like reason as the conicallv flared terminal above alluded to. The depth of the rib 11 that is essential may be fairly gauged by the diameter of the end of the bottleneck 7, it being suflicient that the latter exceed the inside diameter of the annulus formed by the rib so far as to exclude any wedgelike cooperation of the neck 7 within the rib. It is also desirable, for

similar reasons, that the outermost inwardly disposed Wall of the groove should'meet the body of the cylinder 1 at wwide, angle;

The'operation of my device is in view of the foregoing believed to require no-,1turther description in this specification, addressed its end opposite the criniper with n fixed 'core, said core having its outer edge covered with anannular-flange extending inwardly 15 from the cylinder.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

LOVELL M. ROUSE. Witnesses i JOSEPH L. ATKINS, J oHN, CLELAND. 

